They call into question military fences in the midst of the emergency regime

Some 12,000 people who live in the municipality of Comasagua in El Salvador have been isolated since Sunday due to a military fence that restricts them from entering or leaving the municipality unless they prove with an identity document that they live in the place.

The measure was ordered by President Nayib Bukele after the murder of the person in charge of a farm in the area. And although it is not the first time that El Salvador has installed military fences to contain those responsible for crimes, the measure is already being questioned due to the lack of criteria to define when a military fence is warranted and when it is not.

Legislator Dina Argueta said that apparently “it is no longer enough” with the exception regime in force since March 27 of this year. Now, military fences seem to be more common in the government’s strategy.

“We heard the minister (of Security) say that the military fences were going to be applicable at the national level, in all the municipalities. (…) They clearly do not have a security plan, ”he told the media.

The MS13 and Barrio 18 gangs are said to have caused the majority of murders in the last two decades in El Salvador. After grouping together in the country’s poorest neighborhoods a few years after the civil war ended in 1992, the maras created hierarchies and strengthened themselves with extortion and other crimes.

The government’s tools in the fight against these groups have been various: from security plans that left massive arrests such as “Mano Dura” and “Super Mano Dura” 19 years ago to promoting agreements between gangs and the State to reduce homicides.

Right now, the government of El Salvador has announced two strategies: the Territorial Control Plan started in June 2019 and an exception regime that has been extended six times in a row from March 2022.

Although homicides have decreased compared to previous years, “the gang strongholds,” as Security Minister Gustavo Villatorio calls them, still continue to commit some murders.

“Military fences such as the one established in Comasagua allow us to deploy an entire intelligence effort to locate terrorist strongholds. We are going to continue to replicate these measures in other municipalities, ”he said yesterday, Tuesday, October 4, in a television interview on Channel 21 of El Salvador.

But legislators René Portillo Cuadra and Claudia Ortíz do not see a defined strategy in the application of these fences, since last weekend “there were two murders in Colón and Jayaque, and the same military fences were not made,” Cuadra questioned.

“The security of Salvadorans is good as long as it is done responsibly, proportionally and under the rules of law. What is the reason for this type of policy (military fences)? This apparently reveals that the exception regime is not working”, he told the media.

For Claudia Ortiz, a military fence can be a measure for exceptional cases. But public security should not make the Central American country “regress towards a militarized society.”

“There have been other homicides that have not been disclosed as much, but that have also existed,” he said publicly.

Zero homicides

Since the government of El Salvador has promoted the “War against the gangs” campaign and has established an exceptional regime that has already captured 53,465 people, the days with zero homicides are becoming more and more popular.

Officially there is talk of 204 days without homicides since June 2019, and although there were days when the violence suddenly spiked, the daily average of homicides is now 0.45, a lower number compared to the 12 daily registered before Bukele took office. The presidency.

The strategies to achieve these numbers have been questioned not only by the United States Department of State but also by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), which asked El Salvador last June to guarantee citizen security with respect for human rights.

Despite the complaints of arbitrary arrests and the limitation of mobility that military fences entail, Salvadorans approve of the government’s measures, according to the most recent survey by the Fundaungo organization.

Bukele, 41 years old and whose continuous candidacy for the presidency is already public, had the best evaluation on issues such as citizen security. Nine out of 10 Salvadorans surveyed approved of his management.

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